Trigun Overload
by Kia-chan
Summary: Set one month after the events in episode 26, Vash and the Insurance girls attempt to nurse Knives back to health - but what happens when he wakes up? Some unexpected vistiors are on the way too... Things are never easy for Mr. Vash the Stampede! (Rate
1. Chapter 1

Trigun Overload  
  
Chapter One  
  
The desert night was silent and cool, the only sounds being muffled laughter from the town down the hill. Although it was past midnight, the lights were on in the local bar and the beer poured freely. It seemed that half of the town's meager population was crowded into the shabby wooden building. The man who stood on the hill overlooking the town sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He had no reason to believe that this time would be different form any of the others, but he was obligated to try.  
  
Shouldering the small bag he had set in the sand and resting his right hand on the silver pistol on his hip, he trudged down the hill, trying to avoid getting sand in his shoes. As usual, it was a losing battle. Muttering a curse, the man rested one hand on the signpost for the town as he took off his shoe and watched the sand trickle out. Replacing the shoe, he strode to the swinging half-doors of the saloon and took a deep breath. Releasing it, he pushed the doors open and walked through.  
  
The laughter ceased as thirty pairs of eyes turned towards him, no few of them darkening in suspicion at the sight of his firearm. The man raised his hands and smiled charmingly, and the few grizzled men who had been reaching for their side-arms stopped and returned to their drinks or their decks of cards. The man pushed his hands into his pockets and walked to the bar, taking a seat on one of the unoccupied swiveling stools.   
  
"What can I get fer ya?" The barkeep grumbled, drying a glass with a bar rag he had removed from his belt.   
  
"I'm looking for someone," the man replied, resting his elbows on the bar and folding his hands. "Vash the Stampede."  
  
***  
  
Vash sneezed.  
  
"Catching a cold?" Meryl asked as she looked back over her shoulder. Her look of concern quickly changed to a condescending grin. "Not that I'd be surprised, the way you're always going out drinking at night and coming back at three o'clock in the morning! I swear, sometimes I wonder if your blood isn't pure alcohol by now!"  
  
"Now Meryl, Mr. Vash never comes home past one o'clock in the morning, you know that! You're always waiting up for him," Millie said cheerfully as she dried a plate and set it on the counter. Meryl blushed furiously and glared at Millie.  
  
"I do NOT wait up for him! I just can't sleep well these days, that's all!"  
  
"Aw, you insurance girls are too hard on me," Vash said, pouting.  
  
"I wish you wouldn't call us that anymore," Meryl said disapprovingly, handing another wet dish to Millie to be dried. "You know we quit our jobs at Bernadelli two months ago. And besides, we HAVE names, you know."  
  
"I know," Vash said, leaning forward over the table and tracing a pattern with his forefinger on the wood. "But I'm so used to calling you the insurance girls that anything else feels funny!"  
  
"I'll give you something that feels funny," Meryl muttered angrily, but her face was lit up by a smile. Suddenly a crash broke her train of thought.  
  
"Oh Millie! Not again," Meryl exclaimed, taking in the shards of broken ceramic plate scattered across the floor. "This is the fourth time this week! At this rate we'll be buying new plates every month!" Millie raised her fists to her eyes and her lower lip began to tremble. Within moments she was sobbing openly.  
  
"I'm so sorry, Meryl! I'm so clumsy... I... I'll go buy new ones tomorrow, I promise, after work!" Meryl put a hand on her friend's shoulder and tried to comfort her. Neither of them noticed as Vash got up from the table and walked silently from the room.   
  
As he strode soundlessly down the hall, Vash's green eyes narrowed, and he stuffed his hands into his pockets. He wore a white shirt with top button undone, which was tucked messily into tan pants held up by a pair of red suspenders. His blond hair stood up in his usual spikes and he had continued shaving, but sometimes he missed his familiar red coat and the silver gun he had worn on his hip for so long. He hadn't carried a gun since... not since...   
  
Vash sighed as he opened the door to the last room on the right and flicked on the light. He pulled a chair up to the side of the single bed and collapsed into it, letting his head fall forward into his hands. Knives didn't stir. He hadn't woken up once in the month since Vash had brought him here. Looking into his brother's face, Vash wondered at how peaceful he seemed while he slept. He knew his brother's cruel and murderous nature almost as well as he knew his own pacifistic one, but as he slept he reminded Vash of the way they used to be... Before the murders, before the ships had crashed, before... Rem. When Knives woke (If he woke, Vash's mind reminded him,) would he still be the same bloodthirsty killer he was two months ago?  
  
"Was it a mistake to bring you here?" Vash whispered, a tear running down his cheek. "If you wake up, will you kill those dearest to me, will you go back to the way you were, or will you try to change?" Knives moaned in his sleep, and his right hand twitched. Dreaming again, Vash thought, taking his brother's hand in his own. I'll just have to hope that if he wakes up, he'll realize his mistakes and try to start anew. But I'll be here - just in case.  
  
"Vash," Knives sighed, turning onto his side. His face contorted with pain, and Vash gently turned him back onto his back. The wounds he had inflicted on his brother had nearly healed, but he couldn't chance Knives tossing and turning in his sleep and opening them up again. A hand gently squeezed his shoulder, and Vash slapped a grin on his face as he turned to look up at Meryl.  
  
"How's he doing?" She asked, taking her gaze from the man resting on the bed to meet Vash's eyes.  
  
"Oh, I'm sure he'll wake up soon," Vash said, carelessly waving a hand in his brother's direction.  
  
"I still can't get over how much you two look alike," Meryl said, sitting down carefully on the edge of the mattress. Vash's grin faded and he sighed.  
  
"We've always looked alike," he said softly. "It's just too bad we can't think alike as well."  
  
***  
  
Knives fought against the blackness that was holding him down, but his body didn't seem to want to respond. Desperately he told his arms and legs to move, that if they didn't cooperate the darkness would claim him, would suffocate him, but it seemed that there was a great weight pressing against his body. With a gasp, Knives realized that he was being held down, and a face swam out of the darkness, leering, mocking, cruel. He struggled in vain against the man who held him, but his child's arms and legs didn't possess the strength to break away from Steve's grasp. He was lifted from the ground by hands gripping his arms like steel clamps, and he tried desperately to kick his assailant as the cold fingers dug into his forearms. Steve sneered at him, his face a grotesque mask of misplaced fear and hatred, then flung him away like so much trash. Knives hit the wall and slid down it, cowering and curling his young body into a protective ball.  
  
Where was Vash? Where was Rem? Surely they would come to rescue him...   
  
But no one came to his aid. Steve kicked him, drew his fists back and pummeled them into his body with sickening thwacks of flesh on flesh, slapped him and hurled him around the room. Knives began to cry, and when he opened his eyes there were twin suns shining above him. The sand beneath his knees was hot, and he looked down at his hands, no longer the hands of a young boy, but of a man. Blood was staining them - his own blood, he realized in shock. He looked up into his brother's green eyes, and into the muzzle of a silver gun. The gun he himself had made for Vash. And which he had just used on his own brother! The pain of betrayal cut deeper than that of the bullet wound, and other memories swept over Knives' mind in a hurricane of images and sounds.  
  
I'm dreaming, Knives realized, and watched one final memory unfold itself before him. Vash stood over him, pointing that same silver gun at his face. His yellow sunglasses reflected the light of the two suns. He should have killed me, Knives thought. It's what I would have done in his place. But then Vash did a strange thing. He threw the gun to one side and began to bandage Knives' wounds. What is he doing? Why didn't he kill me? He knows that as soon as I recover I'll just try to kill him again. So why take the time to heal me? To carry me to safety? To sit by my bedside and wish for my recovery? I never did understand you, Vash. He knew that these events had transpired even though he had been unconscious. Somehow he knew that his twin had cared for him and nursed him back to health with no thought whatsoever for what would happen when he finally awoke.   
  
But then... maybe he had thought about what would happen. And this thought truly made Knives pause. Maybe he hopes that I'll change, that I'll subscribe to his soft thinking. Maybe he thinks that I'll cherish these stupid humans the way that he does, even though he knows he's a higher being. But this compassion... this selflessness... I just don't understand it. I don't understand YOU!  
  
"All life is precious," the words rose out of his subconscious in answer to his unspoken question. "No one has the right to take the life of another."  
  
What if she was right? Knives thought uneasily. What if... all this time... Rem and Vash were right, and I was the one who was wrong? The thought scared him. It was the first time in many long years that Knives had been truly afraid. Perhaps these humans who had tried so desperately to scrape out a living on this forsaken planet weren't the spiders after all. Maybe there was a way to live in harmony, the plants and the humans, and he just never bothered to look for it.  
  
Slowly he opened his eyes, and saw Vash leaning over him, concern and suspicion fighting for precedence in his eyes.   
  
"Hey Vash," Knives said quietly, then was overtaken by a fit of coughing. Apparently his body wasn't quite healed yet. When he recovered, he noticed a woman standing by the door. "Rem," he said, and smiled at her. "You cut your hair, huh? It looks good." 


	2. Chapter 2

A little girl ran by the small house, chasing a black cat. She wore a delicate blue dress and white shoes, and her long blond hair was tied back in a pair of pigtails which bounced against her back as she ran. Giggling, she stopped and watched as the cat scrambled to escape beneath the porch of the house. A pair of yellow eyes blinked at her from the darkness.  
  
"Here kitty," the girl said, crouching down and extending one hand.  
  
"Mreow," came the indignant reply.  
  
"You lost your friend, huh?" said the man who crouching down beside the girl. She started, and looked at him apprehensively.  
  
"Wow mister, you sure are quiet! I didn't even hear you," she said. The man smiled, and she smiled back.   
  
"So people tell me," he responded, and stood up, wiping the sand from the knees of his black pants. "What's your name?" he asked, affectionately placing his hand on the top of the girl's head and ruffling her hair a little.  
  
"Jessica," she replied, and grabbed the man's hand. "You seem nice. Wanna come play with me and my friends? We've got dolls and tea and everything!"  
  
"Oh, is that where you were off to? Well Jessica, I'm afraid that today I don't have any spare time to have tea with you... But the next time I'm in town I'll be sure to write you into my schedule, how does that sound?" Jessica grinned at him.   
  
"Ok! What's your name, mister?" The man smiled, and looked off into the distance. Jessica waited patiently.  
  
"I was wondering if you'd seen any strangers in town lately, Jessica," the man said, and she pouted, not having acquired his name.   
  
"I guess," she responded. "You're a stranger! But you're a nice stranger, not like some of the men who come through. Lots of them carry guns and are mean to me and the other kids."  
  
"I'm sorry to hear that," the man said sadly. "People should really learn to be nicer to children. But the man I'm looking for would have been very nice to you. He has blond hair, and green eyes, and is kind of silly sometimes. He likes eating donuts, and maybe he had a big red coat on. Have you seen anyone like that?" Jessica didn't even have to stop to think.  
  
"I know someone like that, only he doesn't wear a red coat. He and two ladies live just outside of town, and they come shopping here all the time. One of the ladies works for the sheriff and the other one is a waitress, but I don't think I've ever seen Eriks working." The man's head snapped around, and Jessica wondered if she had said something wrong. His dark eyes were wide and he looked very surprised.  
  
"Eriks? Did you say Eriks?"  
  
"Well... Yes, that's what he told us his name was. He comes and plays with us sometimes." Jessica played with one of her pigtails. "He had tea with me once. I like him." She looked at him hopefully. "Maybe once you find him, you'll both come and have tea with me? I would like that."  
  
"Maybe..." the man said, and pulled a cigarette out of his jacket. He lit it with a match and tossed the used stick to one side. "Can you show me where they live?" Jessica noticed that the hand he was holding the cigarette with was shaking.  
  
"Well sure, but I can't leave town. My Mom would ground me if I did. I can point out the road they live down for you, though."  
  
"That'll be fine, Jessica," the man said, but he sounded distracted. "I wouldn't want to get you in trouble with your mother."  
  
"Alright then, follow me..." she paused, hoping that the nice man would finally tell her his name.   
  
"Oh," he said, and shook his head. "Sorry. My name is Nicholas. Nicholas D. Wolfwood."  
  
***  
  
"Could you leave us alone for awhile, Meryl?" Vash asked, never taking his eyes from his brother. Knives appeared relaxed, but Vash had learned from long experience that it was at times like this when he could be his most dangerous.   
  
"Sure," Meryl replied uncertainly, eying Knives with suspicion and fear. "I... I'll just be outside. With Millie." The door closed softly behind her, and Vash relaxed a little. Now that she was out of danger, he could risk asking Knives some questions. Even if he didn't have a gun, Vash didn't trust his brother in the same room with Meryl, and especially not if he got annoyed with some of the questions Vash was about to ask him.   
  
"Do you know where you are?" he asked Knives, who struggled to sit up. Vash leaned forward and put his hand behind his brother's back, helping him into a sitting position. He then sat down on the edge of the mattress and waited.  
  
"No," Knives replied after a moment. "But you're here, so I guess it must be someplace safe."  
  
"Do you remember what happened at... at the oasis?" Vash pressed on. He tried to read his brother's emotions, but those cold blue eyes gave him as much information as ice.   
  
"I remember all of it. But I don't understand what you did, Vash." Knives turned his piercing eyes to his brother, and Vash looked down at his hands.  
  
"I don't know what you mean."  
  
"You should have killed me. You know it. I know it. And yet you didn't. Why?"  
  
"You know the answer to that, Knives."  
  
The injured man leaned back carefully against the wall and tilted his head back, closing his eyes. "Yes. I suppose I do, don't I. Rem." Vash nodded. "But after all that I've done to you, after all that I've made you do, I don't understand how you could have forgiven me enough to let me live. For all you know, as soon as I'm healed I'll try to kill you again. Or maybe that girl, the one who looks like Rem." Vash stiffened, and Knives opened one eye to look at him. "You see? That's what I mean. What could possibly be worth taking that chance, Vash?"  
  
Vash paused. There was something different about Knives. He seemed more... stable, somehow. More capable of seeing things the way Vash had always wished he would. But only if he played his cards right. He only had one chance at this, he sensed that, and if he made a mistake now, his brother might be lost to him forever.  
  
"You're right, Knives, it was a big chance. But I wanted my brother back." Knives sat up and met Vash's eyes. There was a sadness, a longing there, that Vash had seen before. One that he himself had felt for over a hundred years. "That's all I've ever wanted, Knives. You said once that we should act like brothers, that we should be side by side, and there's nothing that I would like more than that. But not as killers. Not as murderers of innocents. I've missed you, Knives, even more so as I've watched my friends age and die while I stay exactly the same. But if you continue with this quest of yours to annihilate humankind, I'll have to stop you again. And you'll force us to be enemies. I'm asking you to make a choice, Knives. Which is more important to you - the destruction of humans, or having your brother by your side? It's your decision, and you know what the outcomes will be. I can only hope that you'll make the right choice."  
  
Knives stared at his brother, his face blank and emotionless. "You want me to choose between the world, and you," he finally said.  
  
"Yes."   
  
Knives sighed. "You always were impossible," he said, then rested one hand on his brother's shoulder. "I'll agree to your terms for now, Vash. As long as you admit one thing to me."  
  
"What?"  
  
"That you're in love with that girl outside the door," Knives said with a grin. Vash fell off the bed with a crash, and Meryl, her ear pressed to the door, blushed a crimson red. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three  
  
"Master Kiyoi?" said a timid voice. Ano Kiyoi turned his eyes in the direction of the speaker. A young boy stood with his hands clasped behind his back, standing at attention. The boy was seven, maybe eight years old, but a life of hardships had taught him to respect adults and do whatever they told him. And Master Kiyoi had told him to always stand at attention until he was told to stand down. If he obeyed, the boy would receive candy and maybe even a pat on the head from his master. The boy lived for these small joys, and to please Master Kiyoi.   
  
It had been three years since the boy had been rescued from the brink of death by the strange man clad entirely in white, and in that time he had come to respect him immensely. Master Kiyoi had become the father the boy had never had.   
  
"You may stand down," Master Kiyoi said, a smile playing across his lips, and the boy relaxed. "I have a mission for you. It is very important." The boy nodded solemnly. Master Kiyoi had told him that this day would come, and he had looked forward to it. Now, finally, he had the chance to prove that he was worthy of being Master Kiyoi's son! He could finally repay him for all of his kindness. The boy waited patiently for the details of the assignment. "Do you understand that this mission is very important?" Master Kiyoi asked.  
  
"Yes, Master Kiyoi, sir," the boy responded. He clasped his hands behind his back again to hide the fact that he was trembling in excitement.  
  
"Very good. You're such a good boy, I hate to send you out into this harsh world. But, I have plans which must be put into action, and you, my son, you are the beginning of all of my plans." The boy nearly fainted in happiness. Master Kiyoi had called him "son!" And he, Kita, would be important to his plans! He bit his lip to keep from crying out in joy.  
  
"I will be sending one of my men to escort you to a small town," Master Kiyoi continued, and Kita fought to remember each and every word exactly as he said it. "This is what you must do..."  
  
***   
  
Two days after meeting with Jessica, Wolfwood walked up the narrow path that the little girl had pointed him towards. He lit a cigarette and flicked the used matchstick to one side, and looked up at the twin setting suns. He shouldn't have delayed as long as he had, but he had needed time to prepare himself for seeing Vash and the girls again. And to explain. Explain why he wasn't dead, why it had taken him a month to find them, and the... other business. He had asked God for his guidance, but the old man had typically not lent him a helping hand. Wolfwood smiled. But then, what could he expect? God had helped him out enough last month, and was probably tired of him always asking for favors.  
  
The path bent around a small cliff with a scraggly growth of brown bushes, and then the house came into view. Wolfwood stopped, the grin fading from his face as he saw who sat on the porch in a wooden chair.  
  
"Nicholas D. Wolfwood, if I remember correctly," Knives said, and raised a hand in greeting. Wolfwood slowly reached for his gun, knowing that it would do him no good but determined to try anyway.   
  
"If you've killed them, by God, I'll hunt you until my last days," Wolfwood snarled, and a surprised expression crossed Knives' face.  
  
"I'm unarmed," he said, and raised his hands slowly to chest level. "If you're looking for my brother, he and the two women went that way." He pointed to another path leading away from the house. "Something about a sick child, I think. That's my dear brother for you, always playing the hero." Wolfwood slowly lowered his gun, but he kept his finger on the trigger.  
  
"You tried to kill me," he said guardedly.  
  
"Well, not exactly. One of my underlings tried to kill you. Went by the name of Legato. Deceased, I'm afraid. You, on the other hand, have done considerable damage to me, you know."  
  
"What are you talking about?" Wolfwood responded, his eyes darting over the clearing. If any of the Gung Ho Guns were lurking around, now would be the perfect time for them to strike.  
  
"That cross-shaped gun of yours. My brother used it to put an awful lot of holes in me, you see."   
  
Wolfwood smirked. "You had it coming, I'm sure."  
  
"Oh, undoubtedly." Knives gave a half-hearted grin. "You may find that I've changed, Nicholas D. Wolfwood." Suddenly, he tilted his head to one side, and Wolfwood raised his gun again, prepared to shoot him in the head if even one lackey jumped out of the surrounding cliff-side. "I believe that my brother and the women are on their way," Knives said, turning back to look at the priest with those calculating blue eyes of his. "Perhaps it would be best if you lowered your weapon."  
  
"Fat chance," Wolfwood muttered, his eyes straying to the path again. Then he heard voices.  
  
"Absolutely not! We're already poor enough without you buying donuts every other day! Those things are expensive, you know."  
  
"What about pudding?"  
  
"I said, no!"  
  
"Aw, but you buy those fancy plates all the time, and I bet if we saved that money we could buy a whole LOT of donuts!"  
  
"For the last time, Vash, NO! Once I see YOU out in the town working to make some money I'll consider buying you donuts, but not before!"  
  
"But I don't know how to work!"  
  
Vash, Meryl and Millie rounded the corner as Vash was whining about finding a job. They were all carrying brown paper shopping bags, and Millie had a necklace made from string and plastic beads hung around her neck. Millie was the first to see him. Her mouth dropped open, and the bag slipped from nerveless hands to crash onto the ground.   
  
"Millie! How many times have I told you-" Meryl began, but she followed Millie's line of sight and stopped mid-sentence on sight of Wolfwood. The priest lowered his gun, not seeing Knives' "I told you so" shrug as he did so, and cleared his throat nervously.  
  
"I-" he began, but Millie shrieked and hid behind Meryl before he could get out more than that one word.   
  
"It's a GHOST!" she cried, ducking behind Meryl, who looked almost as frightened as her friend. Vash carefully set down his bag of groceries and walked up to Wolfwood. He studied his face for a minute, then punched him in the stomach.  
  
"Ow! You needle-noggined jerk, what was THAT for?!" Wolfwood exclaimed, holding a hand to his throbbing stomach. Vash bit his lip, then ran forward and embraced the priest in a huge bear-hug.   
  
"No ghost would call me a needle-noggin!" he said happily, tears running down his face.  
  
"Oh for Gods' sakes, put me down already," Wolfwood said, but he felt a smile come unbidden to his lips.   
  
"He's really not a ghost, Mr. Vash?" Millie asked hesitantly, and Vash dropped Wolfwood on the ground as he turned to face her.   
  
"Nope! How many ghosts do you think carry THESE?" He held Wolfwood's pack of cigarettes aloft triumphantly.  
  
"Why you - GIVE ME THOSE!" Wolfwood cried, tackling Vash and wrestling the cigarettes away from him. When he finally succeeded, he wiped the dust off of his black suit and stood to find himself face to face with Millie.  
  
"You..." she said, her lower lip trembling. "You... YOU BIG JERK!" Wolfwood blinked, and she began pounding on his chest with her fists. "You died! You made me so unhappy! You told me that you would come back, and you didn't! You lied to me!"  
  
"But I'm back now, aren't I?" he said softly, catching her fists and pulling her to him. She threw her arms around him and began to sob uncontrollably. After a minute, Wolfwood gently pushed her away and looked at Vash, who was lying in a crumpled heap on the ground.  
  
"Get up, needle-noggin. I think it's about time we all went inside. I've got a lot of explaining to do." 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four  
  
Vash leaned back against the kitchen wall, studying the man sitting at the table in front of him. Wolfwood looked much the same as he always had, and Vash still hadn't quite gotten over the shock of seeing him alive. When they had left Augusta, he and the Insurance girls had left the priest's body lying in repose in the cathedral where he had been found. They had covered his body with white cloth, and Vash himself had checked and double checked that he was really dead. He simply couldn't understand how his friend had survived.  
  
"I suppose the first thing you'll want to know is why I'm here," Wolfwood said, his eyes on Millie.   
  
"I'll say!" Meryl exclaimed, her usual haughty behavior having returned with a vengeance. "When we left Augusta you were dead, Wolfwood. You had no pulse. How are you sitting here enjoying a bowl of pudding right now when just two months ago you were..."  
  
"That's enough, Meryl," Vash said softly. "Let him finish." Meryl glared at him, but Vash ignored the look.   
  
""Well, as far as coming back from the dead, I really couldn't tell you how I did it," Wolfwood replied, pushing his empty bowl away and lighting a cigarette. "After I entered the church, I remember falling to my knees and begging God not to take my life, and then everything went black. The next thing I remembered was waking up in the church with searing pain in my side. It was morning, and the sun was shining in through the open doors, and when I sat up I had only one thought in my mind - that I had to find you, that you were in danger, and I was the only one who could help you. I think that God heard my prayers and sent me back, Vash, to help you with whatever this danger is that's coming for you." At this, Wolfwood paused and looked suspiciously at Knives, who was tilting his chair back on two legs to rest his back against the wall.   
  
"As to what that danger is, I'm afraid I don't know," he continued, letting his gaze drift over to meet Vash's green eyes. "I've been wandering around the last two months searching for you, and healing. I may have been brought back from the dead, but the wound I sustained in my side was painful, and it's only just healed completely. You covered your tracks well, I had a hard time finding you."  
  
"I had to," Vash replied as he pushed away from the wall and swung a chair around to sit on it backwards. He folded his arms on the back and rested his chin on them. "I've still got that bounty on my head, and as long as I do, I'll have bounty hunters chasing me. Not that they could catch me, of course," he continued with a lopsided grin, "but these girls here have been slowing me down lately."  
  
"Well excuse us," Meryl snorted, getting up and slamming her bowl into the kitchen sink. "I don't know why we're still following you around anyway, you pathetic loser! You can't even get a job-"  
  
Vash's lower lip trembled. "You're so mean to me," he whined, and Wolfwood laughed.   
  
"You two never change, do you?" He asked, and Millie giggled. "Vash, I did have something I wanted to ask you about, though," Wolfwood continued, his voice turning serious. Vash turned to him. "What are you doing with that monster living here?" The priest jerked his thumb back over his shoulder towards Knives.  
  
"He's my brother, Wolfwood," Vash replied simply.  
  
"Brother or not, he's a power-hungry lunatic and a murderer," Wolfwood shot back. "I don't trust him."  
  
"Well I do," Vash returned. "He's changed, he's not the same man he was, and-"  
  
"I can speak for myself, brother," Knives broke into the conversation as he let his chair's front legs drop forward onto the floor. Wolfwood didn't turn to face him. "So, Mr. Nicholas D. Wolfwood, you don't trust your former employer? That's a pity." Vash's face registered a look of shock, and Knives grinned. "Oh, so you never told him? Very well, I suppose that I'll do it for you. I hired Mr. Wolfwood here to be your, oh, bodyguard of sorts," he said, and Millie gasped. "He was to look after you and make sure that you made it to our little reunion safely, dear brother. He was working for me the whole time." Knives turned his ice-blue eyes to Wolfwood's back and grinned evilly.  
  
"So what you're saying is that Vash shouldn't trust me, because I tried to have him killed, but that he should trust you, when you never told him that you were a traitor?"  
  
"That's enough, Knives," Vash said, and his brother shrugged and leaned back against the wall again.   
  
"Is... Is that true, Mr. Priest?" Millie asked, her eyes welling with tears. Wolfwood looked uncomfortably at her. The room was silent save for the wind blowing past the windows outside.   
  
"It's true," Vash replied softly. "I had my suspicions, Wolfwood, but you never harmed me, so I never brought it up. I still hold to that. I'm sure you had your reasons for doing what you did, and I won't hold them against you." Wolfwood shook his head.  
  
"You always were too soft, Vash," he said, smiling. "I guess that I can stand being near that murderer for awhile, if you trust him, but I won't like it." Vash stood up and stretched, a fake grin plastered onto his face.  
  
"Well, that sure was a lot of talking, and now it's time for us to go have a couple of drinks! Whaddya say, Wolfwood?"   
  
"Sounds great!" The priest exclaimed, getting up so quickly he knocked over his chair.  
  
"Now wait just one minu-" Meryl began, but the two men were already marching out the door, arms around one another's shoulders and singing. "Why do I even bother?" She muttered, letting her head fall forward into her hands.   
  
"Now Meryl, I think it's a great idea to have a party! Mr. Priest just came back, and we haven't gone out in ages!" Millie was already pulling on her coat. "C'mon, it'll be fun!"  
  
"No thanks," Meryl replied caustically. "You go on without me, Millie, I have some work to do." Millie looked at her, then at the door, then back at her.  
  
"But... But...."  
  
"Go! I mean it. You deserve to have some fun." Meryl looked up with a fake smile for her friend's benefit.   
  
"Well... Alright, Meryl, but you know where we'll be if you want to come!" Meryl waved a hand at her, and Millie ran out the door to catch up to the two men whose voices were just fading in the distance.  
  
"Interesting friends he has," came a voice from the corner, and Meryl jumped as Knives rose to his feet. She had forgotten he was still there. The man looked down at her, and Meryl shivered as she felt his blue eyes lock onto hers. She couldn't seem to look away. Then, with the suddenness of a crack of thunder, the expression on his face softened, and Meryl was shocked to see a genuine smile cross Knives' face. "He always did make friends so easily," he said, and took a seat beside her. "Tell me... what is my brother like, these days?" 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five  
  
Vash pushed his chair back from the table and hiccupped, then rose to his feet unsteadily and wove his way through the maze of tables and chairs in the bar to the back door. The piano man was playing a lively tune and several of the men at the bar were singing along, but Vash was in no fit state at the moment to join them.   
  
"Leavin' already?" Wolfwood called after him, one arm around Millie's shoulders and the other cradling a bottle of whiskey. Vash hiccupped again and put his hand over his mouth, then made a run for the door. He had just managed to push the door open and reach the alley in back of the bar when he was violently ill.   
  
"Why I drink so much, I'll never know," he muttered to himself as he listened to Wolfwood and Millie laughing and the bawdy tune the men at the bar had begun. Vash leaned his back against the wall and slid down it until he was sitting on the ground, then rested his forehead on his knees. The alleyway was dank and dark, surrounded on three sides by the backs of buildings, and was littered here and there with refuse. The moon was bright and full above him, but he only caught snatches of moonlight due to the laundry that hung from lines crisscrossing the alley above him. A stealthy noise caught his attention, and he lifted his head warily, all signs of sickness and alcohol replaced by watchful suspicion. Something was moving at the end of the alley, where the three buildings formed a dead end, but it was too dark for Vash to see what was causing the disturbance.  
  
A bounty hunter? he thought uneasily. I could make a run for it, there's nothing between me and the street, but I don't want anyone else getting caught up in my fight. Vash noiselessly got to his feet and tiptoed towards the end of the alley, alert for any sign of danger. He wasn't prepared for what he saw.  
  
A young boy was huddled in a pile of garbage, curled into a ball and crying softly. His hair was brown and cut short in the bowl cut that was popular among boys his age, which Vash guessed to be around eight, but the detail which caught and held Vash's attention was the blood on the boy's white clothes.  
  
"Hey there," he said cheerfully, raising a hand in greeting. The boy whirled around and backed himself up into the wall, looking left and right for an escape route. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you," Vash reassured him, then crouched down and held out both of his empty hands. "See? No weapons. How would you like to go inside with me and get something to eat?"  
  
"Ju-just because you don't have weapons," the boy whimpered, "doesn't mean that you can't hurt me. THEY didn't have weapons either, but they... they..." he trailed off into sobs, and Vash noticed the bruising on the boy's face and neck. It looked like he had managed to wipe most of the blood off his face, but the tell-tale signs of a bloody nose were still there, and his right eye was black and swollen.   
  
"Who?" Vash asked, his voice trembling with barely suppressed anger and pity for the boy. "Who did this to you?" The boy looked into his face, and Vash realized that he must not be looking his best at the moment. He hadn't shaved in days, and he was wearing a pair of shabby brown trousers and a torn white shirt.   
  
"I... I don't know who they were," the boy responded after a few minutes of sniffling. "But I think they're still there. My mom... and dad... and my sisters and brother..." his voice trailed off into sobbing again. Vash stood up, his face set and his green eyes narrowed.   
  
"Take me to where they were," he told the boy, who looked up at him and nodded, wiping the tears from his eyes with one fist. I should go and get Wolfwood, Vash thought, But I don't want him getting hurt. Millie just got him back, I would hate for her to lose him again because of me. His mind made up, Vash followed the boy, who had gotten to his feet and was staggering towards the street.   
  
"Wh-what's your name?" The boy called over his shoulder, and Vash grinned.   
  
"Vash." The boy inhaled sharply. "There are a lot of people who would like to know where I am right now," Vash continued, looking up at the stars as he walked. "But I think I can trust you, ...?"   
  
"Kita," the boy replied, glancing over his shoulder and grinning wickedly. "My name is Kita."   
  
***  
  
It took Vash and Kita over an hour to reach the tiny hut, which was nestled into a ditch between two hills. A few scraggly plants grew here and there, which Vash inspected with interest as they passed, but other than that there was no sign of life. There were no lights on in the hut, no smoke rose from the crooked chimney, and the only sounds were those of the bugs and the wind.   
  
"Your family lived here?" Vash whispered skeptically, eyeing the tiny hut and its surrounding area. If there was going to be an ambush, this would be the ideal location. "Why did you live so far away from the town?"  
  
"This was the only place we could afford," Kita replied softly, his voice lowered to match Vash's. "And we preferred to be away from the town."  
  
"Well, you wait here, Kita. I'm going to go down and check it out," Vash replied, and he turned his back on the boy as he prepared to jump into the narrow ravine. Too late he felt lithe arms wrap around his neck, and before he could throw the boy off his back, Kita had shoved a foul-smelling rag into Vash's face. Vash gagged, then felt everything going dim. He had just enough time before he passed out to see fifteen armed men jump out of the shadows, their faces twisted with greed and malice.  
  
***  
  
"Last call!" The bartender called, and the group of men at the bar began arguing loudly that it was far too early to close. "It's two am," the barkeep responded tiredly. Wolfwood stood and stretched, regarding the four empty bottles on the table and Millie's sleeping form. Vash hadn't returned yet. Maybe he was still out back, retching his fool head off. The needle-noggin never could hold his liquor.   
  
"I'll have another one," Millie murmured happily in her sleep, grinning. Wolfwood smiled and gently brushed a wisp of her hair back out of her face as she slept. She looked so beautiful. He could hardly believe that he had been lucky enough to find her sometimes.   
  
"I'll be right back," he told the barkeep, who nodded at him as he began putting away the bottles and herding the drunks out the front door. Wolfwood opened the back door and looked into the alley, searching for his friend. Vash wasn't there. "That's funny," Wolfwood said to himself, scratching his head. He closed the door and turned to the bar. "Hey! Did you see Va- I mean, Ericks leave?"  
  
"Naw," the man responded. "Maybe he went back home." This last was accompanied by a meaningful glance at the door. Wolfwood shrugged and hoisted Millie's arm over his shoulders, supporting her as he headed for the door.   
  
"Yeah, he must've. May you go with God's protection." As he helped her back along the path to the house, Wolfwood thought that it was strange of Vash to leave and not tell him that he was going. He hoped he hadn't gotten another fool notion of going off on his own, but discounted it as he recalled Knives. He wouldn't put it past the Stampede to leave himself and the Insurance girls behind out of regards to their safety, but surely Vash wouldn't leave his brother...   
  
They reached the house about fifteen minutes later, and Wolfwood helped Millie into her bed as gently as he could. He then rose and knocked softly on Meryl's door.  
  
"Wha issit?" He heard her mutter, and the door opened a minute later to reveal the young woman in her nightshirt, rubbing her eyes sleepily.  
  
"Did Vash come back?" Wolfwood asked, keeping his voice low so as to not awaken Millie or Knives. As if that monster sleeps, he thought spitefully.   
  
"Um, no? Why, wasn't he with you?" Meryl responded, her eyes losing their sleepy look and regaining some of the fire he recognized. She only looked that way when she was worried about Vash, Wolfwood realized with a smile. She cared about him more than she would ever let on.  
  
"He went out the back door to be sick around midnight, and we haven't seen him since. Are you sure he didn't come back?" Meryl looked about ready to kill.  
  
"He had better have! If that moron left without telling anyone he'll have ME to answer to!" she snarled, and stalked off towards his room. A woman on a mission, Wolfwood thought with a grin. She banged on his door and opened it without waiting for an answer. Wolfwood fully expected to see a half-dressed Vash scrabbling for his shirt and whining about how late it was, but the room was empty. The moon shone in from the window on his bed, still made, and an empty chair. Meryl walked into the room wringing her hands, then she paused and whirled on Wolfwood.   
  
"If this is some hare-brained excuse for a joke the two of you cooked up while you were drunk I'll kill you both," she exclaimed, raising one fist in warning. Wolfwood raised his hands.   
  
"If this is a joke, it's a pretty feeble one," he replied, then noticed that she was trembling. "Oh... it's alright, Meryl," he said comfortingly. "I'm sure he just went out for the night, maybe he needed a change of scenery or something... He'll be back tomorrow morning, you just wait and see. Probably with a bag full of donuts and complaining about the weather." He tried a half-hearted smile, but it faded when he saw the look on her face. She looked near to tears.  
  
"I... I can't lose him... again..." she said softly, then turned around hastily so her back was to him. "If... if you don't mind, I think I'll just stay here... and wait for him to come back." Wolfwood took a step forward and laid a hand comfortingly on her shoulder.   
  
"Don't worry, Meryl. I promised that I wouldn't let anything happen to him. If he's not back tomorrow, I'll find him and bring him back to you. I swear." He turned and left her alone in the room, closing the door quietly behind him.  
  
"So my dear brother has vanished, has he?" A voice from the darkness startled Wolfwood, and he turned to see Knives standing in his room's open doorway.   
  
"Very good at sneaking around, aren't you?" Wolfwood snarled, glaring at the man who stared coolly back at him. "One would almost think you were up to no good. But then I know you better than that, don't I? I KNOW you're up to no good."   
  
"On the contrary. I'm just as worried about Vash as you are. Maybe more so, he's all the family I have, you know. I'll be leaving with you in the morning to find him." And with that Knives turned and closed his door, leaving Wolfwood standing in the hall clenching and unclenching his fists in fury. Just who the hell did that guy think he was, anyway? Well, Vash had better be back tomorrow, and if he wasn't, Wolfwood was leaving on his own. There was no way he was taking some homicidal ego trip on a tour around planet Gunsmoke. No way.  
  
With that thought, Wolfwood walked into Millie's room and closed the door behind him. He lay down beside her and put his arms behind his head, trying to think... There was something he should be remembering, something nagging on the edge of his mind, something important... but every time he thought he had it, it drifted away, insubstantial as gun smoke in the wind. Something about danger... and a man dressed in white... 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6  
  
Vash awoke with a splitting headache. "Ohh," he moaned, raising a hand to his head. Or, he tried to raise his hand anyway. For some reason it wasn't responding. "Now listen, you," Vash told his arm silently but sternly. "You better do what I tell you to or there'll be trouble!" The arm still refused to respond. Vash risked opening his eyes and was rewarded by a fresh stab of pain in his head. He quickly squeezed his eyes closed again.   
  
"Well, that was a bad idea. But where the hell am I?" He carefully opened his eyes again, this time going very slowly, and managed to take in a few of his surroundings before the pain forced him to close his eyes. He was in a small room with stone walls, and there was a dim light bulb hanging from the ceiling. There were no windows and no furniture, apart from the cot he was lying on, and the door was heavy and barred. "Well, this is a fine mess," Vash thought sadly. "Guess I'm just too trusting sometimes, just like Wolfwood always told me. Ah well, I suppose it's probably bounty hunters who have me, and they haven't killed me yet, so that's a good sign... If I go to jail maybe the Insurance Girls can get me out!" Vash paused in his train of thought. "Wait, they'd never do that. I'm sure that the authorities wouldn't post bail, I'm too 'dangerous' for that, and there's no way they'd spring me from jail, it's illegal! I guess I'll just end up sitting in a cell for the rest of my life. Or, maybe I can escape when whoever captured me tries to move me! Yeah! That's a great idea!" Vash grinned and began formulating plans.   
  
Strategy 1 - Fake a stomach ache and butt the guard in the head... No, that'd never work, no one ever fell for that anymore...  
  
Strategy 2 - Use his left arm gun to break through the wall... Vash experimentally flexed his left arm, feeling the familiar gears and machinery responding, and then it stopped. His face fell. Apparently they had bound up his arm. Plan 2, out the window...  
  
Strategy 3 - Jump around screaming and try to make the guards think he'd gone crazy...  
  
The door creaked open. Vash stealthily opened one eye a slit, and bore the pain long enough to see two men walk purposefully into the room. The first was a heavily built man clad in leather, his arms so thick they were nearly bursting from his sleeves. He had short blond hair and a goatee, and wore a scowl. There were several weapons hanging from his belt, but no guns - most seemed to be rounded sticks with blades set into them at angles. This man, Big Brawny as Vash decided to call him, entered and checked the room's corners, then walked over and began to fiddle around with something below Vash's line of sight on the cot. Vash felt cords tighten around his midsection, legs, arms, neck, wrists and ankles. "So that's why I can't move," he thought as the second man approached the doorway.  
  
"Everything is secure, Master Kiyoi," Big Brawny said in a gravelly voice. Vash suspected that he had been drinking too much whiskey. The man known as Kiyoi strode into the room elegantly, and Vash's eyes opened a bit wider. He forgot about his pain as he watched his strange visitor. Kiyoi was dressed entirely in white, from slacks and a loose-fitting shirt to a cape which billowed behind him as he walked. Even his hair was white, but his eyes were midnight black. It seemed as if the man's pupils had swallowed his irises, leaving only inky blackness.   
  
"Bring me a chair, Rile," Kiyoi said smoothly, his voice smooth but with an edge as sharp as a razor. "I would speak with our guest." The man turned his blank eyes on Vash, who immediately squeezed his eyes shut and feigned sleep. He heard a rasping, and assumed that Big Brawny had dragged in a chair, and then he heard the door swing softly shut. "I know that you are awake, Vash the Stampede," Kiyoi whispered. Vash could feel his breath on his face. He must be sitting very close.   
  
"Hmm. Perhaps you need a little incentive to open your eyes," the man said coolly, and Vash heard the sound of metal being freed from a sheath.   
  
"Ok! Ok! I'm awake!" Vash snapped open his eyes and grinned at his captor, who was holding a knife with a wickedly curved blade over his face. "You're uh, not going to use that thing, are you?" Vash asked nervously, watching the knife as it swayed back and forth. Kiyoi paused for a moment, then slid the knife into a sheath at his side.   
  
"No, I can't kill you, Vash the Stampede. I have... uses for you."  
  
"Oh, you're after that silly reward too?" Vash said, smiling. "They really should recall that, I'm certainly not worth $$60 billion!"  
  
"Oh, and modest to boot!" Kiyoi said sarcastically. "It seems that all the things I have heard about you are true. I am not, as you put it, 'after that silly reward.' I have a proposition of sorts for you."  
  
"Oh? Well you know, I might be a little more willing to help you if you'd untie me, Mr. Kiyoi," Vash said hopefully. "These ropes or whatever are really annoying, and I've got this headache..."  
  
"Ah yes. That would be from the anesthesia I had my young apprentice administer to you. It will fade... in time. Unfortunately I cannot release you from your bonds, not yet, at any rate. You see, if you decide not to take me up on my generous offer, I am afraid that we will need to use other methods to persuade you. You WILL be helping me, Vash the Stampede, whether you choose to do so of your own free will or not. The choice is up to you."   
  
"Umm... ok? Well, I guess I would kinda need to know what this offer is before I could make a decision..." Vash was starting to feel more and more uneasy. Kiyoi hadn't taken his blank eyes from Vash's once, and their inky depths were starting to seriously disturb him. There was something about them that reminded him of Knives.   
  
"It's rather simple, Vash the Stampede," Kiyoi said as he leaned back in his chair and folded his hands in front of his face. "I want you to kill."  
  
***  
  
Four hours later, Ano Kiyoi walked out of the dungeons wiping blood from his hands and smirking. Rile bowed to him as he passed, then followed in his master's footsteps. "Did it work, Master Kiyoi?" Rile asked after a moment, and the man dressed in white laughed horribly.  
  
"Oh yes, the machine worked exactly as it was supposed to. I shall have to give Dr. Kamiyui a raise when all this is over." Kiyoi chuckled, and Rile gripped one of his shatas nervously. It was rare to see his master in so fine a mood. It made him feel uneasy.   
  
"I now have the ultimate weapon in my hands, and nothing shall stop me from achieving my goals. Vash the Stampede is on our side, and all the towns of Gunsmoke shall tremble in fear of our coming!" Kiyoi laughed evilly as he pulled the doors to the great chamber closed between himself and his bodyguard. Rile stood in front of the door and tossed a shata from hand to hand nervously. It would begin soon... He hoped he was on the right side.  
  
***  
  
Wolfwood paced back and forth in the kitchen, muttering curses to himself and throwing occasional dark glances at Knives, who sat looking out the window. Meryl and Millie were both standing in front of the door with their arms crossed.  
  
"We're not letting you leave without us, Wolfwood, and that's that!" Meryl exclaimed for the hundredth time that morning. "There's no telling what trouble that pea-brained idiot had gotten himself into this time, and we can't just sit here knowing that he might be in trouble!"  
  
"That's exactly why I can't take you!" Wolfwood yelled, slamming his hand down on the table. "I don't want you to be in danger, and if Vash is involved, you know there's bound to be trouble!"  
  
"We've been around Vash a lot longer than you have," Meryl said stubbornly. "And we're still alive. Besides, you don't even have a gun, Wolfwood! Millie and I are both armed, so we'd be much better candidates to go after him than you. You should be happy that we're even allowing you to tag along," she added with a satisfied smirk. Wolfwood's eye twitched. He had to restrain himself from reaching across the table to strangle her.  
  
"I agree," Millie said vehemently. "If Mr. Vash is in trouble, I want to help him! It's what my big sister told me to do. And besides..." Here she paused a moment and glanced at him. "I don't want to lose you again, Mr. Priest! If you go wandering around after Mr. Vash, you might get yourself killed again- er, almost killed, or, well, injured at least, and I don't want that!" Wolfwood sighed and looked up at the ceiling.  
  
"Give me patience," he muttered.  
  
"I don't see the harm in bringing them, so long as they can keep up," Knives interjected smoothly. Wolfwood turned to him with a scathing look.   
  
"And who asked you?" He snarled. Knives responded with a grin. Wolfwood threw up his hands in frustration and turned his back on the lot of them.   
  
"Fine. Whatever. Come along if you like, but I can't guarantee that I can protect you all." He threw another glare at Knives. "And I'm telling you right now that I won't even TRY to protect YOU!" Knives shrugged. Millie jumped up and down and clapped her hands.   
  
"Yay! Let's go and find Mr. Vash!" Wolfwood rolled his eyes.  
  
"I'll need to stop in town and get a gun before we go anywhere," he said resignedly. "Do either of you have any money?"  
  
"Now wait just a minute!" Meryl exclaimed angrily. "If you think that you're going to spend any of our hard-earned cash you're dead wrong, mister!" Wolfwood's eye twitched again. These girls were going to drive him insane. He just knew it.  
  
"And how do you expect me to help you find Vash without a gun?! I certainly don't have any money, and I'll be damned before I go walking around in the desert without some protection!"  
  
"Don't worry Meryl," Millie said happily. "We've got more than enough to buy Mr. Priest a new gun... It won't be quite as fancy as your old one, though," she added.   
  
"I expected that," Wolfwood replied. "Just as long as it shoots lead bullets I'll be happy. Now we had better get a move on. Knowing Vash, he'll be damn near impossible to find, and I don't want you girls to be in any more danger than you have to be." Knives got to his feet.  
  
"I'll need a gun as well," he said softly, and Wolfwood spun around.   
  
"Ooh no, you don't," he hissed. "There's no way I'm letting you get your filthy paws on a gun! You'd shoot us all in the back before we even got out of the store!" Knives shrugged.   
  
"Your loss. I suppose we should be going then." He paused for a moment, his ice blue eyes narrowed as he looked out the window. "Vash is somewhere to the west."  
  
"How do you know that?" Meryl asked quietly, looking at Knives curiously. The man shrugged.  
  
"I can feel it. I've always had a vague idea of where my brother is, but the closer I get, the less distinct the sense is. I suggest we hurry. We may be able to get some information from the humans along the way. The longer we wait, the less likely that prospect becomes." For once, Wolfwood agreed with Knives, but he didn't dare voice his assent. He wouldn't give him the pleasure.   
  
"Let's get a move on," he said instead, and the girls obediently walked out the door. "I'm watching you, Knives," Wolfwood growled as he passed him. Knives just smiled in that condescending way of his and followed him out the door. 6 


	7. Chapter 7

(I would like to thank all the kind people at Otakon 2003 for allowing me to have such a wonderful time. If you were there, and saw the girl with long brown hair in a braid dressed as Vash - perhaps in the karaoke room singing 'Sound Life,' getting my pic taken with Johnny Yong Bosch, or at the fan-dubbing panel - I hope to see you next year, and would like to simply express my thanks for all the hugs and pocky. Who ever would have guessed that dressing as the $$60 billion man would get me so many hugs from complete strangers? ^_^ And I would also like to thank K'leth Rossk - you know who you are - for the inspiration on one of Knives' lines. ~_^)  
  
"Will give hugs for donuts (or whiskey!)"  
  
Chapter 7  
  
The town appeared to be peaceful and quiet, but Wolfwood had learned long ago that appearances could be deceiving. He kept an eye on all the windows as they passed, checking for any suspicious characters, but all he saw were men returning from work and women ushering noisy children to bed. It had been a week since he and the girls had set out to find Vash, and so far they hadn't gotten so much as a clue as to his whereabouts. Knives had proven himself to be patently useless after the first couple of days, claiming that he could no longer tell in which direction his brother was. The inn was just one more block down the dusty street, and Wolfwood had to admit that the run-down building looked extremely inviting. They had been sleeping on the bus for the past three nights, and a proper bed was just what his aching back needed.   
  
Millie and Meryl walked ahead of him, Meryl's white cloak flowing behind her. They were discussing which direction would be best to search. He supposed they must be used to this, searching for Vash the Stampede... They'd certainly had more experience with it than he had. Knives sauntered along to Wolfwood's right, wearing the tan pants and white shirt that Vash had given him before he had vanished. He looked uncomfortable in what he called "human clothes," but Wolfwood spared him no sympathy. If he had worn that stupid white jumpsuit they would just attract attention, and that was one thing they didn't want. The moon (still sporting the hole that Vash had given it,) was full and bright above them by the time they reached the inn, and Wolfwood held the door for the two girls as they walked in. He took a vindictive pleasure in letting it close between himself and Knives, but the other man ignored the slight and walked in as if he owned the place.  
  
"Well, how do ya do, ladies?" The innkeep said brightly as they approached the bar. "Lookin' for a place to spend the night?"  
  
"That's right," Meryl replied, and leaned in closer to the man. "We're also looking for some information. I don't suppose you've heard any rumors about Vash the Stampede lately?"   
  
"The Humanoid Typhoon?" The man looked uneasily to the right and the left before replying. "As a matter of fact, I have. It seemed like he disappeared for awhile, but just yesterday a man came in claiming that he had seen the outlaw outside the city of November." All the patrons of the bar had hushed their conversations, and were now hanging on the barkeep's every word. "When the guy got to November, he said the people there were wiped out nearly to a man. The only ones still alive were the ones who were smart enough to go into hiding until Vash left." There was a collective gasp form the audience, and Millie scratched her head.  
  
"Gee, that doesn't sound much like Mr. Vash... Do you think it could be just another person using his name, like before?"  
  
The innkeep shook his head vigorously. "I dunno what you ladies heard about Vash the Stampede, but the man who told me this was reliable as they come. He said that he was a blond man with a big red coat, and a silver gun." Knives, who had been staring disconsolately out the window, looked up at this. "That matches all the descriptions of Vash I've ever heard, and besides, who else could wipe out a whole city in less than a day? It has to be him. I just hope he doesn't get it into his head to come this way." All the men at the bar nodded their agreement. Knives leaned forward.  
  
"You say he had a silver gun? Are you sure?"  
  
The innkeep shrugged. "Well, that's what the guy told me." Knives looked thoughtfully at him, then went back to staring out the window. Wolfwood threw a glare Knives' way. Meryl cleared her throat, then smiled at the man behind the bar.   
  
"Thank you for all your help, sir. We'd like to get two rooms. How much will that be?" The innkeep gave her the price and Meryl dug around in her pockets for a moment before handing over the specified amount.   
  
"Hey, wait a minute," Wolfwood exclaimed, suddenly realizing that she had only asked for two rooms. "You don't expect that I'm going to share a room with HIM, do you?!"  
  
"We don't have enough for three rooms, Wolfwood, and I'm sure you wouldn't want him on his own with no one to keep an eye on him, would you?" Meryl growled at him, that dangerous glint in her eye. The innkeep followed the conversation, looking from the man dressed in black back to the woman in white. "You're the one who's always saying how dangerous he is, so it makes perfect sense that you should be the one to watch him. Now let's go."  
  
The innkeep cleared his throat hesitantly. "Say, you folks aren't going to bring trouble here, are you? We've got enough to worry about, what with Vash in the area and all, and-" Knives reached across the counter and grabbed the front of the man's apron. He hauled him halfway across the counter until they were almost nose to nose.   
  
"That man you're so afraid of, Vash the 'Stampede'? Well, I'm his brother, and I'm even worse than he is, so if you don't want any trouble, you'll leave us well enough alone. Is that clear, human?" Wolfwood covered his face with one hand. All the men at the bar slid away from the altercation and a few began edging towards the door.  
  
"O-o-of course, sir, I mean, I wouldn't dream of kicking you out, I don't want any trouble, I just had to ask, business is business, surely you understand-"  
  
"Quit your stammering. And send up your best bottle of red wine, free of charge, or I'll be drinking something red, but it won't be wine, and you won't be in any condition to see it." Knives released the man's apron and turned on his heel. Meryl and Millie watched with their mouths hanging open.   
  
"I knew it," Wolfwood muttered. "I just knew he'd be trouble." As Knives walked up the stairs towards the rooms, Meryl regained her composure and began making apologies to the innkeep. Wolfwood silently tried to decide which method of killing Knives would be quietest.  
  
When they reached the room, Wolfwood slammed the door open and strode up to Knives, who was sitting at a table with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.  
  
"We were trying not to draw attention to ourselves!" Wolfwood yelled, slamming his hand down on the table. "What the hell was the big idea, telling him that you were Vash's brother?! Now no one in this city will come within a hundred yards of us!"   
  
"So?" Knives replied, smoothly getting to his feet and meeting Wolfwood's gaze. "That's fine. We got the information we needed, and I didn't appreciate the human's attitude. He should learn to respect those better than himself."  
  
"Oh, and I suppose you think that means you, huh?" Wolfwood was about ready to throttle him.  
  
"Of course. I've been alive since before you were born, human, and I understand about your pitiful race more than you can ever hope to. Remember that the next time you get it into your head to order me around like some obedient puppy dog." His blue eyes narrowed, and Wolfwood backed away a step. "The only reason I'm tagging along with this little band is to find my brother. I don't care about you, about any of you!" His voice rose until he was almost screaming. "I'm better than all of you, and you know it! You resent it! You hate me for it, just like all of your kind!" He paused and took a breath, and when he continued his voice was dangerously soft. "But one day you'll learn... You'll all learn..."  
  
"I don't hate you, Mr. Knives," Millie spoke up softly. "You can be mean sometimes, but I don't think you really mean to do the things you do." She walked over to him, and Wolfwood felt a surge of protectiveness wash over him. He didn't want her that close to that killer. She smiled up at him, as Knives glowered back at her, then did the most unusual thing Wolfwood had ever imagined. She reached up and hugged him. Wolfwood took a step forward as he watched Knives stiffen, but Meryl put her arm in front of him to stop him.   
  
"She's right, Knives," Meryl said softly. "You have good in you. I've seen it, when Vash is near you, and when you talk about him. You love him, and if you can love, then you're not lost yet. You just need to understand, like Vash does, that we're different than you, and accept it. We know that you and Vash are different, but we accept you just the same, and we don't hate you. All life is precious, Knives, whether it be plant or human." Knives' eyes widened, and Wolfwood was shocked to see what looked like compassion reflected there. Then Meryl walked up and wrapped her arms around both Knives and Millie.   
  
Slowly, Knives reached one hand out and rested it on Meryl's head. "I see," he whispered. "I see now why he cares for you so much." Then he looked up to meet Wolfwood's incredulous stare.  
  
"If you think I'm coming over there to hug you, you're sadly mistaken," Wolfwood snapped, and Knives threw his head back and laughed. Millie and Meryl released him, looked back at Wolfwood, and began laughing too. He glared at them all. "I'm not kidding!" That only made them laugh harder. Wolfwood felt a grin steal unbidden across his face. "Lord, you sure do have a strange sense of humor," he murmured, then strode over and put his arm around Millie. "You two ought to be getting to bed. If we're going to be traveling to November tomorrow you're going to need all the rest you can get." He leaned down and kissed Millie briefly on the lips, and smiled as she flushed. "I suppose Knives and I can resist killing one another for one night, at least." He looked up at Knives questioningly, and was surprised to see him smiling at him. Really smiling. Huh. Maybe there was hope for him yet.   
  
***  
  
Vash woke up in a cold sweat. He had just had the worst nightmare. He shook his head to clear it and looked around at his surroundings. Big Brawny was sitting in a chair by the door, his arms crossed and his eyes following Vash's every movement. Vash scratched his head and yawned.   
  
"I had one heck of a nightmare," he said to Big Brawny, who grunted. "You ever have one of those nightmares that felt real?" Vash tried. The huge man responded with another grunt. "Hm, I guess you don't talk. That's too bad, I was kinda hoping you could tell me why I'm here. Oh well, guess I'll just have to find out for myself!" Vash swung his legs over the side of the bed and got to his feet, noticing as he did so that he was wearing something remarkably similar to his old brown clothing with the straps. He had almost reached the door when Big Brawny stood up.  
  
"You can't leave," he growled, and Vash grinned at him.   
  
"Hey, you can talk! How about that! Well, if I can't leave, maybe you could tell me where I am?"  
  
"In your quarters," the man responded, and Vash laughed.   
  
"Well, I guess that would be kinda obvious, huh? I meant, what city are we in?"  
  
"We're not in a city."  
  
"Ok, what's the closest city then?"  
  
"I can't give you that information."  
  
Vash paused. He clearly wasn't getting anywhere along this route of questioning. "Alright then, can you tell me why I'm being held here? It's not for the reward, is it?"  
  
"No." Vash waited, but the man simply stood there with his arms crossed.  
  
"Could you elaborate?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Right then. I guess I'll just, um, sit here then." Vash walked back to his bed and sat down. Big Brawny returned to his seat as well. They sat there staring at one another for about five minutes before Vash got bored.  
  
"So, uh... Wife and kids, then?" 


	8. Chapter 8

(Note: If anyone is confused about the character "Tessla," either pick up a copy of Trigun Maximum (Manga) or find a translation on the web. ^_^)  
  
Chapter 8  
  
Knives stood in the center of a ring of death and destruction. And, strangely enough, he hadn't been the cause of it. It was an odd feeling. The city of November's population had been decimated, and the killer had left the victims of his massacre out to dry in the hot desert sun. Corpses littered the roads, hung over porch railings and out of windows, and lay bloated in the large fountain in the center square. The wind carried the stench of rotting flesh for miles.  
  
The two human girls stood in mute horror as the priest bent over each and every body, arranging their arms and hands in a peaceful pose and saying a brief prayer. Knives simply strode up and down the street, looking at their faces and feeling something he had never before experienced. He felt guilt. Why this was, since he had had nothing at all to do with this incident, he didn't know, but the feeling was there nonetheless. It frustrated him.  
  
As he walked past a small house off the main road, he noticed a shred of red cloth hanging from the doorjamb. He carefully climbed the three steps of the porch and bent to retrieve it, but as he looked up he saw something which sent a jolt of recognition through him.  
  
A young woman lay on her side, clutching a young boy in her arms. They were both dead, shot, like everyone else in the city, but there was something about this scene which struck a chord in Knives' memory.  
  
Knives stood in the doorway, clutching his side and sobbing. Blood ran down the side of his face and into his eyes, and he could feel it running down the length of his long blond hair. Steve had been worse than usual today, and he was still following Knives, stumbling along the corridors in a drunken haze, calling for his little whipping boy to return to him.  
  
"C'mon, ya little monshther! Why'd'ya haff to go runnin' away like that for? I juth wanted to talk a lil more." Steve's voice carried down the hallway, along with his cruel chuckle. "C'mere, monshter, c'mon back and we'll play a lil more..." Knives let out a shuddering cry and began limping towards Rem's quarters. If she wasn't there, he didn't know what he'd do... But she was the only one who could help him...   
  
It took him another five minutes to reach Rem's rooms, and he began pounding on the door the instant he got there. "Rem!" He called out, checking over his shoulder to see if Steve was in sight yet. He wasn't. "Rem! Please open the door! Please help me!"   
  
"Aha!" Knives whirled around and pushed his back against Rem's door as he watched Steve stumbling towards him. "Thought you'dve come thish way," slurred the drunken man, and he lunged for Knives. The boy tried to dodge out of the way, but the pain in his side slowed him just enough for Steve to get a hold of the front of his shirt. He lifted Knives off the ground effortlessly. Even drunk, Knives was less than half the big man's size, and the weight was no problem for him.  
  
Suddenly, he heard a swoosh from behind him, and a pair of arms wrapped themselves protectively around Knives' chest. "Just what the hell do you think you're doing, Steve?! Let go of him right now!" The big man obediently released his shirt, and Knives found himself gently borne to the ground in Rem's arms. Her dark hair hung down around his face, and he thought that in that moment, she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She was his savior. "Are you alright?" Rem asked softly, and when Knives nodded she stood up, putting herself between the drunken man and the boy. Knives heard a loud slap echo down the hall, and watched as Steve stumbled away pressing one hand to the side of his face. Rem had saved him that day, quite possibly had saved his life. Who knew what else that man could have done to him?  
  
But she lied to us, another part of Knives' mind reminded him solemnly. She didn't tell Vash and I about Tessla. She let them kill her, our older sister, and she might have let them kill us once they were done observing our growth. Once they deemed us enough of a threat.   
  
Regardless, though, she did save my life, that other voice responded stubbornly. And it was my action that killed her. My choice to destroy the other ships. I signed her death sentence when I changed the coordinates in the computers.   
  
Knives looked down at the woman with the boy in her arms and felt that gut-wrenching sense of guilt again. How many other mothers and sons had died this way, on his orders? How many boys had cried for their mothers in fear, just as he had for Rem, but had gotten no answer and had been slaughtered in their own homes? Knives sank to his knees and began to cry.  
  
***  
  
Meryl dragged her face out of her arms when she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. Wolfwood was standing in front of her, his face a composed mask hiding the anguish and horror she knew he felt. Because she and Millie felt the exact same way. It was like seeing Legato's handiwork all over again. All of the people had been shot. All of them. They hadn't found one survivor. And supposedly Vash had done this.  
  
Once, she would have believed it in a second. Vash the Stampede? The Humanoid Typhoon? The outlaw with sixty billion double dollars on his head who had destroyed the city of July? Of course he would be capable of this. But that was before she had come to know him... Had become friends with him. Hell, maybe she even loved the idiot a little. When she looked around at the devastation around her, memories of Vash flooded through her mind, of him scarfing down their donuts, saving their lives, shouting "Peace and Love!" and playing with children. She remembered him crying over all the dead and injured, and walking unarmed into hostage situations. And she remembered him shooting Legato. And him telling her to stay away from him, with those eyes... It was all too much. Vash couldn't have done this. He didn't. She had to believe in him.  
  
"Meryl?" She looked up at Wolfwood, who was looking concerned. "Did you hear a single word I just said?"  
  
"No... Sorry. My mind was somewhere else. What's going on?"  
  
"Have you seen Knives? He's wandered off someplace."   
  
"No. I've... been distracted." Meryl tried to avoid looking at the sea of corpses around her.  
  
"Well, we'd better find him. C'mon." Wolfwood gently placed a hand on Millie's shoulder and steered her down the street. The big girl walked as if in a daze. She hadn't said a word since they had arrived in November, but a steady trickle of tears wound their way down her face. They ran into Knives about halfway down the main street. He was coming out of a small house clutching something in his left hand.  
  
"I found this," he said as he walked up to them, not meeting their eyes. He held out the object he was holding. It was a shred of red cloth. Wolfwood gently took the cloth out of his outstretched hand and inspected it.   
  
"You found this in there?" Knives nodded, his eyes downcast. Meryl wondered what he had seen in that little wooden home. Wolfwood sighed. "I'm going to go in and check it out. There might be something else in there that you missed. Another clue." Knives just nodded, and Meryl followed Wolfwood up the steps into the house. A young woman and a boy were lying on their backs on the bed towards the back, the woman's arm around the boy and the boy's hands folded peacefully across his chest.  
  
"I didn't arrange these two," Wolfwood said softly. He and Meryl looked at each other solemnly, then they glanced out the window to where Millie and Knives waited. The man stood watching the sunset, his hands in his pockets. Wolfwood shrugged.  
  
"Maybe our killer is growing a conscience," he said.  
  
***  
  
Vash sighed. He felt very tired, almost as if he hadn't slept in days, and for some reason he kept on waking up in the middle of the night and falling asleep again before the sun rose. He supposed it must have something to do with his being imprisoned. It must be messing with his sleeping schedule... not that he'd ever really had a schedule to begin with, of course. It was hard to keep a bedtime when bounty hunters kept knocking on your door.  
  
"Hey Big Brawn- I mean, sir," Vash quickly amended. The man looked up at him. Vash thought he looked bored. "Any idea how long I'm gonna be kept here?"  
  
"Until the job's done," Big Brawny said. Vash marveled at how the man could answer so many questions and yet not answer them at all. They had been playing this game for about two weeks now.   
  
"Alrighty then. Say, how about we tell each other some stories to pass the time?" Vash grinned at him. The guard just scowled back. "Your turn first. Whaddya say?"  
  
"I don't have any stories." Vash's face fell, but he brightened almost immediately.  
  
"Oh c'mon, everyone has stories! Here, I'll start... Well, there was this one time, when me and this priest, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, were trying to help out this poor starving family, so we both entered a quick draw tournament!" The man sat passively through Vash's story, and he thought that he may have seen Big B. crack a smile once or twice. Could have been his imagination, though. "But I didn't get the girl," Vash finished after about a half an hour. "Her husband wound up coming back after all. It always seems to turn out that way for me. The only girls who are ever interested in me are either deputies who would have to arrest me or weird insurance girls who hit me all the time. Isn't that sad?"  
  
"Are you trying to say that you want a prostitute?"  
  
"No! Not at all, although I wouldn't mind, y'know, seeing a pretty girl, but that's not what I meant at all, I was just trying to tell you a story, and now it's your turn. Come on, you must have at least one good one." Vash smiled, hoping to encourage Big B. to open up a little.  
  
"Alright, I'll tell you a story. I got chosen to pull guard duty once for this really annoying guy who wouldn't shut up."  
  
"Wow, that must have been annoying. What did you do?"  
  
"I let him yack and yack until he finally got tired of talking and shut up. Happy?" Vash leaned back and smiled.   
  
"See? That wasn't that hard now, was it? I knew you had a story." Big Brawny buried his face in his hands. Vash figured he must have done that because he was so happy. 


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9  
  
Vash awoke at the usual time (he judged it to be about 9 pm,) and was shocked to see that for once Big B. wasn't sitting in his chair by the door. Vash sat up and hurriedly pulled on the pair of boots beside the bed. This was his chance. Who knew when the next time he would be alone would be? His captives had made their first mistake, and he didn't plan on letting the valuable chance pass. The heavy wooden door was locked from the outside, of course, but Vash had been planning this from the first night he had been locked here. It had been over a month.  
  
His left arm had been disengaged somehow, but until now Vash hadn't had an opportunity to inspect how that had been achieved. Now he carefully opened the straps which held the small maintenance door closed, and discovered that many of the wires inside connecting the actual gun mechanism had been completely removed. No chance of shooting the door down, then, but that would have drawn unwanted attention. What Vash was planning was much more subtle. He grinned. Meryl would never have believed it of him. He could almost hear her voice now. "That man, Vash the Stampede, doing something that requires brains?! Now that's a shock." He sighed. He missed those insurance girls more than he ever would have guessed, when they first showed up over a year ago. Especially Meryl...  
  
Vash shook his head. This was no time for daydreaming. He carefully pried a long thin piece of metal out of his arm, the one which had once controlled the movement of his pinky finger. He couldn't move it anymore, but that was a small price to pay for what he was planning. Vash bent over the door and carefully inserted the metal pin into the lock.  
  
***  
  
"Did you see that?"  
  
"Yeah... Looks like it could be the place. We should go have a look." Wolfwood crawled back behind the dune he and Meryl had been peeking over. The moon shone on the sand, giving it an eerie silver quality, and the stars were bright and clear above them. Millie and Knives waited for them at the bottom of the drift.   
  
"Well? What did you see?"  
  
"Give me a minute!" Wolfwood sat back and lighted a cigarette before answering Knives' query. "There's a big town down there, but it looks like there are only a few people living there. We saw a car leave, heading out towards the west, but other than that there's no sign of life. It's just like the guy in the bar told us... A strange town with no name, not plotted on any maps, about two days walk from November."  
  
"Maybe we should go after the car and ask whoever's driving it some questions," Meryl suggested. Knives sighed.  
  
"And how do you suggest we go about catching it? Unless you've grown wings in the past five minutes, I mean," he said. Meryl glared at him.  
  
"Last time I checked you were the only one of us who could grow wings, Knives. Why don't YOU fly over there and check it out?" Knives ignored her. She hit him in the back of the head. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" Knives rubbed the back of his head ruefully while Wolfwood chuckled at the two of them.  
  
"I can only grow one, I can't fly with it, and I would need my gun," he responded despondently. "How did you know that, anyway?"  
  
"Vash told me," she replied, looking up thoughtfully at the hole in the moon.  
  
"Why don't we just go and knock on the door?" Millie asked with her usual carefree enthusiasm. Wolfwood looked at his big girl with widening eyes.  
  
"That just might be the best idea I've heard all night," he said mischievously.  
  
***  
  
Vash stared in mute horror at the table in the room next to his. The room was like some kind of sick memorial of Vash's past. On the wall beside the table hung his old red jacket. Wolfwood's cross punisher leaned against the far wall. His old bag lay on the floor, and his yellow sunglasses rested on the table beside... beside... Vash thought he was going to be sick.  
  
A pair of guns lay on the table in carefully tooled leather holsters. One black. One silver.  
  
How... How... But he had left them... These things shouldn't be here, Vash thought desperately. They CAN'T be here... They should be buried in the middle of the desert where he and Knives had fought their last battle. What did this mean? What was Kiyoi planning? Vash carefully reached over and touched the hand grip of his old gun with one finger.  
  
He was striding down a street in the middle of the day, laughing maniacally. "Vash the Stampede is here," he yelled mockingly. "Run! Run for your pitiful human lives! Not that that will save you!" He pulled his silver gun and took aim at the nearest screaming child. A woman ran into the street and threw herself between his gun and the child as he pulled the trigger...  
  
Vash wrenched his hand away from the gun and clutched it to his chest, as if burned. He stumbled backwards until his back made contact with the wall, then he slid down it in trembling shock. What... what... what WAS that?! His mind reeled in horror and confusion. He couldn't seem to get a grasp on his surroundings.   
  
Slowly, Vash controlled himself. He let out a shuddering breath, then stood up. He had been sleeping through the days lately. Then he had a vision of himself in the middle of the day killing a town full of people. A vision... or a memory? Vash's blood ran cold. What had Kiyoi done to him?! He had to find out. And he had to do it by sunrise. Gritting his teeth, Vash reached down and picked up his gun, bracing himself for another vision. None came.  
  
He slowly strapped the holster to his hip. He couldn't leave these things here. Not the guns, at any rate. They were too dangerous. He took it's brother and strapped it to his other hip. Vash cast a glance over his shoulder at the other things in the room before he stealthily closed the door behind him. He would return later to reclaim his things... After he had gotten some answers.  
  
***  
  
"Another drink, bartender," the man called from his seat at the end of the bar. The fat old man hurried over with a shot of whiskey.   
  
"Here you are, sir, best in the house," the barkeep groveled. The man smiled coldly at him.  
  
"Thanks." He pushed twenty double dollars across the counter with two fingers. "Keep 'em coming." The barkeep nodded and bowed as he took the money, then hurried off to serve two new-comers. The man swirled the liquor in the glass, then downed it in one shot. Master Kiyoi would be pleased with him. He had found the travelers exactly where he had said they would be, had given them the information they thought they wanted, then watched as they left the town six days ago. He smirked, knowing that they were walking into a trap, and happy to know that he had had a part in their downfall. Oh yes. Master Kiyoi would be very pleased with his son Jacob.  
  
***  
  
Vash walked along the corridors of the stone building in a daze. He had never imagined that so many horrors could exist in one place. In one room he had looked into, he had seen an enormous machine with thousands of needles, syringes, restraining straps, and other diabolical instruments of science gone horribly wrong. What the machine could be used for, he had no idea. As he was walking along another hallway, he had passed cells holding prisoners. The people had shrunk back against the walls when they saw him coming, whimpering and hiding their heads. Vash had tried to open one of the cell doors in an attempt to release the prisoner, but the girl had begun to scream the instant he touched the door. He had left the door and run down the hall, trying to ignore the terror-filled cries of the people he passed.  
  
What he had seen had hurt Vash deeply. He was used to people being afraid of him, but these people had been struck with abject horror. What possible reason could they have for being SO afraid of him? A voice cut into his thoughts, and Vash realized that there was an open door ahead of him. He swiftly flattened himself to the wall and sidled to the door, peering around the edge as carefully as he could. Big Brawny was sitting at a small table with two other men, playing cards.  
  
"So, the Master'll be back tomorrow, right Rile?" One of the other men asked as he lay down his hand on the table.  
  
"Yeah," Big Brawny replied, studying his own hand intently. None of the men were facing in Vash's direction. "He's got some business to attend to."  
  
"Shouldn't you be watching the outlaw?" The second man inquired, filling a shot glass with booze. "Or maybe we should just start calling him 'the bait!'" He and the other man laughed heartily, but Big Brawny (Rile, Vash thought, his real name's Rile,) just studied his cards.   
  
Bait? Vash thought, suspicion gnawing at him. Bait for what? Or who? Is that why I'm being held here?  
  
"Didn't feel like it tonight," Rile muttered, as he took two cards from his hand and pushed them, face down, to the center of the table. One of the others threw him another two from the deck. "Besides, you both know he's no danger until the daytime, and then he does whatever Master Kiyoi tells him to. I don't see much point in watching him every night." Vash's blood turned to ice. He had to get away from here. Now.  
  
He carefully darted past the door and began to run down the hallway. 


	10. Chapter 10

(Long chapter this time... But I guess that works out well since it's chapter 10. Thanks for sticking with me this long, enjoy the chapter! ^_^)  
  
Chapter 10  
  
Ano Kiyoi refused to let himself relax. His plans were so close to fruition… All the years of waiting, and finally his dear ones would be avenged. And the prophecy… He mustn't forget the prophesy. He knew that with the success of his plan, the prophecy would be fulfilled as well. And it was he, Ano Kiyoi, who would bring to pass this wondrous event which would so help his fellow men! All the people who had suffered along the way, all those he had had to use and who had lain down their lives for the cause would be given the victory they had all hoped for. And it would come to pass soon… Very soon… Everything was going according to his plans. He glanced down at the piece of paper held loosely in his hand.  
  
"When the twin suns engage the fire of vengeance..."  
  
Kiyoi grinned.   
  
***  
  
"Are you sure this plan will work?" Meryl looked at the priest incredulously."Yes! Just follow my lead and everything will be fine." Wolfwood took a drag on his cigarette then threw it into the sand by the door. Knives, Meryl and Millie stood in a semi-circle around him, looking out of sorts in their new "uniforms." Knives looked down at his new outfit and pulled the collar away from his neck uncomfortably.   
  
"I still don't see why we shouldn't just shoot our way through the door. This IS a rescue operation, isn't it?"  
  
"We don't know whether or not Vash is even being held here," Wolfwood growled. "So let's investigate a little before we start shooting up a private residence, hm?" Knives rolled his eyes.  
  
"Whatever you say, priest. Let's just find my brother."   
  
"Right." Wolfwood strode up to the door and raised his fist. He pounded twice, then waited for a response. After a few moments, the door was opened by a young man. He wore a loose fitting pair of white pants and a white shirt. He looked the strangers up and down, taking in their baggy grey jumpsuits, buckets, mops, and brooms, then met Wolfwood's eyes.   
  
"Can I help you?" The boy asked.  
  
"Well, I certainly hope so!" Wolfwood responded cheerfully. "We're just a poor band of traveling cleaners... We'll clean your home for a modest fee with our superb cleansing supplies and our outstanding teamwork!" Knives slapped a hand to his forehead. "Satisfaction is, if course, guaranteed or your money back!" Wolfwood leaned forward to stick his head through the door. "Whoo-ee! It sure looks like you could use our help! This place doesn't look like it's been properly cleaned in years! We'll even give you a discount if you'll let us stay here, since the next town is so far away. Whaddya say?" Wolfwood tried his best charming smile on the boy, who looked a little confused.  
  
"Well... Master Kiyoi has left for the weekend, but if you'd like to stay here until he gets back to discuss it with him I suppose he won't mind." He looked over the four companions one by one, stopping when his gaze passed over Knives. His eyes narrowed, then he smiled welcomingly. "By all means, come in and I'll show you to some of our guest rooms."  
  
"Oh, you're far too kind," Wolfwood responded, and followed the boy in. He waved for the others to follow him, and gave them a hearty wink. Meryl and Knives rolled their eyes, picked up their mops, and followed Wolfwood. Millie happily hefted her push broom and marched through the door.  
  
***  
  
Vash was starting to get desperate. He glanced out the window. He had been watching the sky grow progressively lighter with growing concern. He had no idea how much longer he had before... before whatever Kiyoi had done to him would take effect, but he knew that he had to get outside and far away from this place before it did. Things weren't looking very promising at the moment. He had been down this same hallway at least seven times. For some reason he just couldn't seem to find the damned door! He came to a fork in the hallway, and opted to take a left. Last time he had gone right. He heard voices ahead of him, and hurriedly ducked inside an alcove carved out of the wall. He accidentally bumped the pedestal in the alcove with his elbow, and had to scramble to catch an ornate vase before it clattered to the floor.   
  
That's all I need, Vash thought morosely as he clutched the vase and tried to will himself invisible. It'd be just my luck to drop something and make enough noise to alert the guards just before I get out of this maze.  
  
"You can stay in these rooms along here," a boy's voice drifted along the hallway to Vash's hiding place. He recognized it at Kita's voice. He suppressed a grimace at the memory of the boy's betrayal of him. He must have had good reason to do what he did. He heard a male voice and a female one respond, but couldn't make out the words. They must be facing away from him. Not that it really mattered, Vash thought, his anxiety rising again. They'd probably be Kiyoi's guests, and why should he care about that? He was getting out of this madhouse.   
  
The voices had stopped. Vash strained his ears and just made out the sound of doors being closed. He carefully turned and replaced the vase on its pedestal. By his own estimates, he had another hour at the most before sunrise. He crept out of his hiding place and made his way down the hallway towards the area Kita and the guests had been. They had to have come in from the entrance... So it must be this way.  
  
***  
  
"Right. I'd say that it's safe to head out," Wolfwood said, his ear pressed to the door. "Sounds like the kid's gone. Wait!" He held up a hand to halt the others as they moved forwards. "Someone else is coming... We don't want to be spotted wandering around in the halls. We'd better wait until they leave."  
  
Knives leaned back against the wall, his arms crossed. He wanted to get out of this room and find his brother. He had been getting a strange feeling lately, one he hadn't bothered to share with the others. He had felt more and more like they were walking into some kind of trap, that eyes were watching them wherever they went... But maybe that was just paranoia. Without Legato to constantly watch his back and the usual comfort of his gun, Knives had felt rather naked of late. He wanted to be around Vash again, for some incomprehensible reason. Well, we are brothers, his mind reminded him. It's only natural to want to be with family. Especially when you're the only two of your kind... Knives sighed.  
  
This train of thought was getting him nowhere, but at least it was better than the other thoughts he had been entertaining lately. Guilt, horror, pain, shame, all of these feelings had been building up in him more and more lately. It was all because of November, and these people... He had to admit, he had actually come to respect them a little. The priest was annoying and petulant, but the two women weren't that bad--  
  
"Ok, let's go," Wolfwood whispered, and Knives pushed away from the wall. Finally, some action! But, he wasn't going to be without protection, he decided. This was unknown territory, and he was still injured, although the others didn't realize it. As he walked past Meryl, Knives darted his hand into her cape and deftly removed one of her derringers. He pocketed the small weapon easily. Meryl didn't notice.  
  
It only had one shot, but it was better than nothing. Knives felt better already. They walked out into the hallway in their stupid grey jumpsuits (although Knives had to admit that the priest's plan HAD gotten them into the building,) and stood in the middle, looking left and right.  
  
"Alright. We came from the right, so I say we head left," Meryl said softly, and Millie clapped her hands.  
  
"I'm so happy we're finally going to find Mr. Vash! Do you think he'll be alright?"  
  
"Of course he will! That pea-brained moron is harder to kill than a cockroach. Besides, he wouldn't give me the pleasure of dying off... He needs to stay around to cause me more grief." Meryl began walking off to the left, hurling insults at Vash as she walked. Knives shook his head. Humans were so predictable... She was obviously in love with his brother. He wondered if she realized how fruitless such a relationship could be, since Vash was immortal and she was only a human female... But he supposed logic didn't matter much when it came to human emotion.  
  
"Hey, look at this big room!" Millie called out, and Wolfwood, who was standing beside her, clapped a hand over her mouth.   
  
"Shh! You trying to bring the whole place down around our ears, hun?" He whispered, and Millie giggled.   
  
"Sorry, honey," she responded, and Knives walked past them both into the room. Millie was right, it was huge. There was a wooden desk against the far wall with an enormous tapestry hung on the wall behind it, and the other walls were lined with bookcases. Papers were flung over the desk. Knives walked over and began shuffling through the papers, looking for something useful.  
  
Most of them seemed to be maps of the cities and out-lying areas. Some areas were circled in red, while others had big Xs on them, with notes like "Not here... checks ran through clean" beside them. There were also what appeared to be diagrams of plants and other machinery, including one of a mechanical arm. Knives inspected that one closely. Sure enough, it looked just like Vash's latest model.  
  
"I think we've hit jackpot," Knives said, looking up from the desk. Meryl was gazing up at the tapestry while Wolfwood and Millie looked at the books. They all turned to look at him. "This is a diagram of Vash's arm." Knives plucked a bundle of wires from among the papers and held them up. "And these look like they were taken from the mechanism controlling the gun part of his arm. I'd say it's a pretty sure thing Vash is being held here somewhere."  
  
"This is interesting too," Meryl said, turning back to the tapestry. "I can't seem to understand what it means though. Maybe you should take a look, Knives." Knives dropped the wires and diagram into his pocket and looked up at the tapestry.  
  
It was about ten feet long and five feet tall, covered with images of fire, feathers, and trees. Superimposed over the images were words, scrawling their way through the imagery indiscriminately.   
  
"When the twin suns engage the fire of vengeance, the darkness will be revealed to be non-permanent, and the lights shall cover all the world in green." Meryl looked at him, puzzled. "What does it mean? Is it supposed to be some kind of poetry?"  
  
Knives blinked. He had heard this before. Had been obsessed with it for quite some time, actually. He had been told that it was a prophesy given shortly after the landing of the SEEDS ships by a gifted human woman, and the last line had grabbed his interest. "Cover all the world in green..." He had puzzled over these lines for years. He knew what they meant, but how to make it come to pass? It had always been his dream to create an Eden for himself and Vash, of course, and this prophesy could be the key. But how could suns exact vengeance? And what about the lights? After about twenty years he had given it up as human nonsense.  
  
"It's a prophesy," he told Meryl. "But as far as I know it's just garbage. C'mon, let's find my broth--" A scream cut through the early morning air, causing Knives to pause mid-sentence and Wolfwood to drop the book he had been looking at.  
  
"That was Vash," Meryl cried, and bolted for the door.  
  
"Meryl! Wait! Don't just... Oh for crying out loud, we'd better go after her," Wolfwood called to them as he headed out after Meryl. Millie followed in his footsteps, and Knives was close on her heels.  
  
***  
  
Meryl was careening down the hallways, unseeing and uncaring of what she bumped into. Another scream split the air, and she put on an extra burst of speed. She knew that sound. It was the same. The same as when he had killed Legato. Vash had sat in his room and screamed as she stood outside and cried. She had to reach him! She had to be by his side, to help him through this. She just had to.  
  
She rounded one last corner and came to a screeching halt. The front door of the giant building was open, and Vash was on his knees in the doorway, his hands clutching his bowed head. The sun was just rising above the horizon. 


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11  
  
"Vash!" Meryl cried, tears filling her eyes as she ran towards him.  
  
"Don't!" She stopped, confused. He remained kneeling in the doorway, his back to her, as he spoke. "There's... something happening to me... It's not safe to be around me. Please..." As she watched, his back convulsed and he screamed again, digging his fingers into his hair and leaning forward until his face almost touched the ground. The convulsion passed, and he gasped for air, leaning on one arm.  
  
"No, Vash! I won't leave you alone to deal with this! I know that you're hurting right now, and I want to be with you... no, I need to be with you! I need to help you, because... because..." Meryl looked up to meet Vash's eyes. He had turned to look over his shoulder at her, his face a mask of emotional turmoil and pain. She cast her eyes towards the floor and clenched her fists, then cried, "Because I love you, Vash the Stampede! And because you don't deserve the things that happen to you! You deserve to be happy..."  
  
"No! No, I don't! You don't understand what I've done! I... think I've done something, something horrible. Something I can never atone for. How can I possibly deserve happiness after--" Vash screamed again, then leapt to his feet and whirled around to face her. "I'm leaving! Don't follow me, Meryl, please, I don't want you to be hurt... I CAN'T LET SOMEONE ELSE I LOVE DIE BECAUSE OF MY IGNORANCE!" Meryl felt tears running down her cheeks. She had never imagined the moment she confessed her feelings to Vash being like this. It was all wrong. Everything was going wrong! Vash turned and ran out the door, and she found that she was unable to follow him. Everything was fading, fading to black... she barely felt herself hit the floor in a dead faint.  
  
***  
  
"Get out of our way!" Wolfwood yelled at the two men standing in the hallway.   
  
"Sorry mister, but we can't. You're intruders here and there's some strange things happening. We're going to have to hold you until the Master returns--"  
  
"Like hell you will! Millie, let's take care of these guys!" Wolfwood was just about to raise his pistol when a bullet screamed past his ear and flew straight through one of the guard's shoulders with a wet thwak. He didn't even have time to turn around before a hand was on his shoulder. Knives was using him as leverage to launch himself into the second man. Knives' feet landed square in the middle of the guard's chest, and he went flying backwards into the wall to slump forward, unconscious, beside his partner, who was clutching his shoulder and sobbing.   
  
Knives was already back on his feet and running before the second guard had hit the floor. He was around the corner by the time Wolfwood had overcome his shock enough to speak.   
  
"Where the HELL did he get a gun?!"  
  
***  
  
Knives knelt beside Meryl and checked her pulse. Good, still alive. She stirred under his hands and he helped her to sit up.   
  
"Va... Vash..."   
  
"It's alright, Meryl. Just tell me which way he went. I'll go after him and meet you back in November, alright? You don't look like you're in any shape to go after him right now."  
  
"No... he's... different... I think he really did kill all those people in November..."  
  
"Look at who you're talking to here. I think I can take care of myself. Just tell me which way he went and I'll make sure I bring him back to you alive." Meryl smiled wryly up at him and pointed out the open doorway.  
  
"He went... east... right into the rising sun..."  
  
"Alright. You just wait for the others here, and tell them to meet us in November. Oh," he pulled out her empty derringer and deftly twirled it around one finger before handing it back to her, handle first. "Thanks for letting me borrow this. It came in handy." Meryl took the tiny gun curiously, but before she could ask how he had come to have it, he was already out the door.   
  
***  
  
"Damn him!" Wolfwood cried as he slammed his fist into the door. "Why's he always got to be such a damned loose cannon?!" Meryl, who was leaning on Millie for support, rested a hand on his shoulder.  
  
"It's alright, Wolfwood, I think Knives is just too used to being in charge to work with others well. He is getting better, though... He didn't kill that guard he shot in the hallway, right?"  
  
"Yeah, yeah," Wolfwood mumbled under his breath. "Probably just missed... So, are we going after them?"  
  
"I'm afraid you won't be going anywhere," said a large man as he entered the room.  
  
"Oh, and who are you to stop us, buddy?" Wolfwood jeered. He was in no mood for games right now. The man grinned as he removed a wicked-looking weapon from his belt.  
  
"I'm Master Kiyoi's personal bodyguard and number one man. My name is Rile, and if I say you're not going anywhere, then you'll be staying right where you are, Mr. Nicholas D. Wolfwood." Wolfwood sighed exaggeratedly.   
  
"Oh, I do apologize, Mr... what was it? Oh yes, RILE, but we have business elsewhere to attend to. So, if you'll excuse us..." Suddenly, the man was moving. He was so fast Wolfwood could barely see him. The priest shoved his big girl and Meryl out of the way and ducked to the side just in time to avoid a well-aimed blow from the man's weapon. He whirled around and struck out with his foot, but the man seemed to have the ability to evaporate into thin air. Perhaps now would be the time for a strategic retreat, until I figure out a method that might work against this monster, Wolfwood thought, and he ducked to avoid another blow and rolled under the man's legs. He jumped to his feet and made a break for the door back into the fortress.  
  
"Meryl! Millie! Meet me at the meeting place!" He called back over his shoulder, and had to dodge another whistling attack. He hoped the girls would take his advice and start moving towards November... Hopefully he'd be able to lose this big lug and join them soon.   
  
After about five minutes of straight out running, the guy had caught up to him again. Wolfwood ducked into a room and slammed the door shut behind him, pressing his back against it while he searched for a lock. There was a deadbolt just above his head. Wolfwood slammed it into place just in time. The big guard began bashing into the door. Given the way the wood around the hinges was splintering, Wolfwood gave it maybe another minute. He turned away from the door and got a shock. Someone up there was certainly looking out for him.  
  
Wolfwood walked across the small room and touched his cross punisher. It had been a long time... But it still felt just as good to hold it as it ever had. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a cigarette and lit it, then hefted the enormous gun and held it under his arm. He triggered the machine gun extension and was pleased to feel it respond quite nicely. Someone had been taking care of it.  
  
With a huge crash, the guard broke down the door and barreled into the room. He stopped short when he saw Wolfwood, who stood with his cross punisher pointed right into the guard's face and his cigarette poised between grinning teeth.  
  
"May God have mercy on your soul." Wolfwood paused and looked down at him over his sunglasses. "Or do you plan on letting me leave peacefully after all?"  
  
***  
  
It hadn't taken long for Knives to pick up Vash's trail. Within an hour he had come within sight of his brother. Vash was walking due east, and Knives could see him as a hazy silhouette against the rising sun. For some reason he had stopped running, but that suited Knives fine. It just meant he would catch up with his brother sooner. Then they would go to November, meet up with the others, and find someplace where they could live in relative peace and harmony.   
  
Knives paused. Had he really just thought that? These humans were having an effect on him after all. Well... Just so long as he was with his brother, he really didn't care. Let the humans hang around. They weren't so bad really, once you got used to them. Not that he'd like to marry one or anything, that was for sure... But he could learn to live with them. If that was what Vash wanted, well, he would make a few sacrifices for his brother. After all, hadn't Vash made enough sacrifices because of Knives' actions? He supposed it was only fair.   
  
He was catching up at an astonishing rate now. Vash didn't even appear to be walking forward anymore. Knives broke into a sprint, hoping to catch up before Vash began moving again. A gun report ripped through the still morning air, and Knives stopped short just in time to avoid the bullet that puffed into the sand in front of his feet. He looked up into his brother's silver gun. The one he himself had made for him.  
  
"Hello, brother," Vash said, grinning. Knives wondered how he had gotten so close to him in such a short period of time. Vash was standing not ten feet away. "I've been waiting for you." Deja vu, Knives thought, as he stared down the barrel of the gun. Well, at least I had the class to bring wine. Vash never was one for dramatic entrances. 


	12. Apology

This is a formal apology for not finishing this story. I'm so sorry, but work on myself and my co-author's novel began after I finished chapter 11 of Trigun: Overload, and after Book One was done, a huge round of editing needed to be made, then I graduated college, then began working on book Two in addition to trying to find a job... And we're still working on book two. Someday I do intend to pick this up and finish it, providing I can remember where I was going with it in the first place, but for now, if you're interested in seeing more of my work visit: www. talesofauli. com (Please disregard the spaces, the link won't show up any other way.) 


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